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Speaker 1: The latest Suburb Trends Rental Pain Index for August has

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Speaker 1: been released and it highlights the ongoing rental crisis in Australia,

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Speaker 1: with rising rental prices and a shortage of homes. Urgent

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Speaker 1: action is needed to alleviate the stress on renters across

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Speaker 1: the nation. Joining me on the line is Kent Ladner,

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Speaker 1: the founder of suburb Trends. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Kent, Good morning, How are you yeah?

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Speaker 1: Really good? Thank you so much for your time this morning, Kent.

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Speaker 1: What has the data found.

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Speaker 2: We found a number of states that are under very

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Speaker 2: significant levels of stress. We're still seeing rent prices increase,

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Speaker 2: but at a much lower level than in past months.

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Speaker 2: If I zero in on the Northern Territory as an example,

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Speaker 2: we've got an affordability rate on overach of around twenty

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Speaker 2: five percent. What that really means is how much am

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Speaker 2: I spending of my household income each week on rents?

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Speaker 2: If you compare that to other states, other states are

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Speaker 2: climbing up above thirty one or thirty two percent, which

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Speaker 2: is a significant problem.

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Speaker 1: So do you reckon it's more a matter of our

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Speaker 1: rents maybe remaining stable, or is it more a situation

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Speaker 1: that we're earning quite good incomes in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: It's a very similar situation to the ACT. It's very

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Speaker 2: much income related. So when you've got a higher than

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Speaker 2: average income, that relative to rents obviously pushes that down

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Speaker 2: below thirty percent. But there is a call out here.

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Speaker 2: The measure of household income is an average, it's the medium,

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Speaker 2: and what we find is a lot of renters find

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Speaker 2: themselves well and truly below that medium, So a lot

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Speaker 2: of these figures can actually be understated.

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Speaker 1: We've seen a massive growth in house prices in recent years.

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Speaker 1: Has that also sort of created some issues?

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Speaker 2: It does. They are correlated. If you're an investor, typically

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Speaker 2: you're looking to buy a properly property and make a yield,

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Speaker 2: a certain return. A lot of investors look for at

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Speaker 2: least four percent now in terms of gross yield. So

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Speaker 2: what that really means is if you're buying a property

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Speaker 2: above five hundred thousand dollars and expecting a decent return,

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Speaker 2: that really doesn't translate to an affordable rental for a

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Speaker 2: lot of Australians. Jee Like it.

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Speaker 1: Makes it hard, doesn't it for a lot of people

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Speaker 1: to either you know, stay on the rental sort of

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Speaker 1: the rental cycle or to get out of it and

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Speaker 1: really try to purchase their own place.

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Speaker 2: It is really tough. I know the politicians are now

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Speaker 2: standing up and facing the issue. They're saying the right

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Speaker 2: things and acknowledging that if you're not born in the

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Speaker 2: right postcode, if you don't have the right parents, you're

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Speaker 2: going to find it very very tough to on this ladder.

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Speaker 2: And if you're trapped in that private rental market, you're

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Speaker 2: going to find it very very hard to accumulate a

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Speaker 2: deposit without that help. And if you go back to

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Speaker 2: the mensi z era, the post World War II era,

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Speaker 2: how the housing crisis was not a new thing and

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Speaker 2: he's not a new thing for Australia, but we climbed

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Speaker 2: out of that before and we did a lot of

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Speaker 2: that on the back of social housing.

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Speaker 1: What kind of things do you think could be happening realistically,

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Speaker 1: you know, to try to make the dream I guess

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Speaker 1: of owning your own home a little bit more attainable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting conundrum right now. I just read

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Speaker 2: a post from Alan Kohla who really put out a

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Speaker 2: long list of things that he thought needed to be

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Speaker 2: done directify the problem, the issue I have is if

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Speaker 2: rent level out or prices level out, that's great, but

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Speaker 2: it still doesn't solve the problem for a lot of

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Speaker 2: people for many, many years because we need to wait

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Speaker 2: for wages to catch up. So we've got to We've

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Speaker 2: got this gap in between where we are today and

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Speaker 2: what things are going to be like in ten years

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Speaker 2: time when the supply starts to pick up, etc. So

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Speaker 2: there are some immediate things we can do as a nation.

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Speaker 2: We can stop ignoring the fact that population growth and

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Speaker 2: housing are two different things. They're what they should be,

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Speaker 2: one of the same in terms of POB We can't

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Speaker 2: have runaway population growth without supporting it with housing supply,

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Speaker 2: So I'd say that's number one. Number two for me.

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Speaker 2: We do need to focus on homelessness, and that it's

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Speaker 2: great for us to focus on housing supply that might

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Speaker 2: come in two or three or four years time, but

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Speaker 2: we need to focus on those that are homeless right

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Speaker 2: here and right now, because those numbers are getting very,

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Speaker 2: very large, and some of the statistics we've seen from

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Speaker 2: the calls to help groups, et cetera. They're runaway. They

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Speaker 2: are in runaway numbers, especially in a couple of states,

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Speaker 2: namely Victorian New South Wales. But that's spreading all over

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Speaker 2: the country. I know.

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Speaker 1: It's something we've spoken about quite a bit on the

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Speaker 1: show previously. We've spoken to the likes of NT Shelter

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Speaker 1: about the need for more social housing, the need for

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Speaker 1: more public housing, you know, sort of filling that gap

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Speaker 1: as well. I guess like there does seem to be

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Speaker 1: quite a bit of money that has been announced over

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Speaker 1: the last year or so by both the federal government

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Speaker 1: in conjunction with the Northern Territory government in in this space,

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Speaker 1: but it just doesn't seem to be sort of turning

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Speaker 1: over fast enough.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that the problem's been amplified obviously through

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Speaker 2: that excessive population growth and not matching a housing supply.

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Speaker 2: They're the right strategies, obviously, we want to very very

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Speaker 2: or we need a very very high proportion of housing

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Speaker 2: coming from state and all community housing groups. I think

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Speaker 2: that's important because it's a bedrock for a lot of

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Speaker 2: people to climb out of poverty. Actually, for a lot

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Speaker 2: of people like myself, it gives you an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: step out of that and get into home ownership yourself.

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Speaker 2: So I really think it's an important part of it.

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Speaker 2: Needs to be part of the Australian makeup. If I

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Speaker 2: look back, you can understand why governments in the past

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Speaker 2: had thought, great, we can have everyone as homeowners. That

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Speaker 2: made sense at a certain time when houses were affordable.

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Speaker 2: They're no longer affordable, So we do need a solution

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Speaker 2: like public housing straight away, Kent.

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Speaker 1: What else needs to happen? I mean specifically when you

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Speaker 1: look at the likes of the Northern Territory, are there

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Speaker 1: are there different things that could be happening right now

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Speaker 1: to sort of to ease this pressure that we're seeing

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Speaker 1: on renters but people needing a home.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we need to make sure that land banking is

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Speaker 2: not happening. A lot of developers I understand, like to

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Speaker 2: land bank and their progatives are slightly different to ours.

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Speaker 2: Their pative is to make profit. I get that, But

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Speaker 2: we need the government to step in and help us

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Speaker 2: when markets are starting to fail the poorest in the

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Speaker 2: nation and what we're seeing is a very very high

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Speaker 2: proportion of people feeling poor right now. So we need

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Speaker 2: land based solutions. We need to find ways to get

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Speaker 2: housing supply done cheaply that are and great initiatives emerging

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Speaker 2: around three D printing, and prefabrication. I think that's essential,

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Speaker 2: especially for places like the Northern Territory where getting access

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Speaker 2: to a whole stack of plumbers and builders and brickies

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Speaker 2: is not easy. If you get an area that suddenly

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Speaker 2: has a massive urging demand, especially in a regional location,

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Speaker 2: it's not easy to fix the supply very quickly well.

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Speaker 1: Suburb Trends. Kent Lardner, the founder of Suburb Trends, We

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks very much for

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Speaker 1: having a chat with me.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: No worries at all,